kernel-hardening - Re: [PATCH] ARM: vdso: Mark vDSO code as read-only

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Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2016 15:00:52 -0800
From: Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>
To: David Brown <david.brown@...aro.org>
Cc: Russell King <linux@....linux.org.uk>, 
	"linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org" <linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>, 
	"kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com" <kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, 
	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>, 
	Michael Ellerman <mpe@...erman.id.au>, Mathias Krause <minipli@...glemail.com>, 
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>, "x86@...nel.org" <x86@...nel.org>, Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>, 
	PaX Team <pageexec@...email.hu>, Emese Revfy <re.emese@...il.com>, 
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, linux-arch <linux-arch@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] ARM: vdso: Mark vDSO code as read-only

On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 9:20 PM, David Brown <david.brown@...aro.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 01:52:33PM -0800, Kees Cook wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 1:36 PM, David Brown <david.brown@...aro.org>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Although the arm vDSO is cleanly separated by code/data with the code
>>> being read-only in userspace mappings, the code page is still writable
>>> from the kernel.  There have been exploits (such as
>>> http://itszn.com/blog/?p=21) that take advantage of this on x86 to go
>>> from a bad kernel write to full root.
>>>
>>> Prevent this specific exploit on arm by putting the vDSO code page in
>>> post-init read-only memory as well.
>>
>>
>> Is the vdso dynamically built at init time like on x86, or can this
>> just use .rodata directly?
>
>
> On ARM, it is patched during init.  Arm64's is just plain read-only.

Okay, great. I've added this to my postinit-readonly series (which I
just refreshed and sent out again...)

-Kees

-- 
Kees Cook
Chrome OS & Brillo Security

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